Senate Releases Partial NCLB Draft

On Wednesday, October 17, the Senate Committee on Health Education Labor and Pensions (HELP) released the first set of their No Child Left Behind Reauthorization drafts. The drafts do not include the pistons of the law, which are the accountability and intervention sections of Title IA. The drafts also do not include Title IIA.

That the Senate did not release the most critical sections of the law may indicate real trouble with the House discussion draft. According to Democratic staff in the House Committee on Education and Labor, they have reviewed the comments to the draft, revised many sections and have sent it to the Legislative Counsel for drafting. Yet, they note, there remain challenges within the Democratic caucus and with the Republican members of the House. Challenges may be a well-chosen euphemism. The Republican staff is less measured in their statements. They note that contentions remain over the choice and SES provisions as well as the multiple measure provisions. It is getting edgy and the Senate education staffers are, no doubt, watching the political theater in the House with great interest.

The Senate drafts do include most of the subsequent titles and we have begun to review the material and will begin to deliver analysis shortly. The Senate’s released draft titles are:
• TITLE I
o Migrant Education
o Advanced Placement
o High Schools, including High School Improvement Grants and Secondary School Innovation Fund
o Mathematics, including Math Now and Math Skills
• TITLE II
o Math and Science Partnerships
o Innovation for Teacher Quality, including Transition to Teaching and National Writing Project
o Education Technology, including Grants to States, National Activities, and Ready to Learn
o American History and Civics, including Traditional American History, Presidential and Congressional History, Civic Education, National History Day, and Close Up
• TITLE III
o Language Instruction for English language learners and Immigrant students
• TITLE IV- and- TITLE V
o Safe and Drug Free Schools
o 21st Century Community Learning Centers
o Summer Term Education Programs
o Public Charter Schools
o Voluntary Public School Choice
o Magnet Schools
o Fund for the Improvement of Education
• TITLE VI -and- TITLE VII
o Rural Education
o Indian Education
• TITLE X of the McKinney-Vento Act
o Homeless Education

Author: DAD